Everyone should know and value the color codes of danger

The three color codes require responses similar to the three colored lights of a traffic stoplight.

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This article will discuss the color codes, green, yellow, and red, and how they can keep a person alert when necessary, and relaxed when appropriate. An understanding of these three color codes will help people to increase their margin of safety. These three color codes represent three degrees of danger that should trigger three different states of body and mind alertness and arousal. After learning the three self-defense mind sets, people will be able to switch appropriately between these three states of body/mind readiness.

Code green represents a state of relaxation. A person who is relaxing and listening to music, in the safety of her home, is an example of code green. When there are no signs of danger, this is a healthy state of being for a person’s mind and body.

Code yellow is a fully alert mode. A person who is aware her surrounding environment should switch to this mode when there is any possibility of danger. A person approaching an outdoor ATM machine at night, for example, should be in a code yellow state of alertness and arousal. This is not the time to be listening to MP3 tunes in a code green state of mind. In a code yellow state of mind, the potential victim is more likely to spot a lurking criminal. Having spotted the criminal quickly, she is more likely to have the time to retreat to safety, instead of being robbed while trying to get money from the ATM.

Code red is a fully aroused, “fight or flight” mode. In the code red condition, the body and mind are primed for action. This code condition involves an intense, controlled concentration and a will to survive. If an inebriated man challenges another man to a fight, for example, the challenged man will be in a fully aroused state of body and mind that should help him to fight or to flee.

Those people who progress from codes green to yellow to red usually will handle danger better than those people who lurch directly from code green to code red. Without going through code yellow first, people are more likely to panic and to freeze when they should be acting decisively and strongly in code red to deal with their threat.

What has been your experience with these three states of mind and body? Please comment below.

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Daniel Vale has a black belt in Seibu Kan Karate and has taught three credit self-defense courses at three colleges and universities. Over the years, he also has worked as a police officer, caseworker, security guard, residence manager, and state hospital security attendant. He has 21 semester hours and 9 quarter hours of criminal justice related of courses.